ADDITIONAL RULES ADOPTED BY TERRITORIAL BOARD OF EDUCATION.

October 27, 1888.-From and after this date corporal punishment in the public schools of Alaska is entirely and wholly prohibited.

All religious services are prohibited in all the public schools of Alaska except Howkau, Klawack, Metlakahtla, Fort Wrangell, Juneau No. 2, and Haines.

October 31, 1888.-The regular meetings of the board shall be held on the second Monday of January and the first Monday of June and, annually.

June 17, 1889.-The term of the public schools in the district of Alaska shall begin on the first school day in the month of September and continue for the period of nine calendar months, ending on the last school day of May in each and every year, except when special provision is otherwise made. And each school shall be kept open each and every day during said period, except Saturday, Sunday, and the national holidays, which are, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, 22d of February, Decoration Day, and 4th of July. All vacations on account of sickness or other cause shall be made up at the end of the term, provided the time of such vacation does not exceed one month.

TABLE I-Attendance.

September. October. November. December. January. February.

Total enroll-
ment for
year.

Total number
of children

under 21
years of age.
tion in neigh-
Total popula-
borhood of

school,

Average.

Total.

Average.

Total.

Average.

Total.

Average.

The following persons have been paid from the school fund:

TABLE IV.-Teachers appointed for 1889-90, with salaries.

The board of education at its semiannual meeting, June 11 to 19, 19, appointed, subject to the approval of the U.S. Commissioner of Education, the following persons teachers for 1889-90:

The board of education at its semiannual meeting, June, 1889, recommended to the U. S. Commissioner of Education the following contract boarding schools:

Support of 19 day schools with 21 teachers.......

Support of 7 industrial boarding schools with from 40 to 45 teachers and employés.
Five new school buildings.........................................

General agent, superintendent, and board of education....

Office of general agent.

The general agent at the beginning of the year, being unable to secure transportation from Sitka to the schools of western Alaska on the U. S. S. Thetis, that was making the trip, requested permission of the U. S. Commissioner of Education to proceed to San Francisco and take passage by the steamers of the Alaska Commercial Company. Permission not being granted, I have been unable to carry out the instructions of the honorable the Secretary of the Interior to visit all the schools at least once a year.

Indeed, for the want of transportation I have been unable to visit the schools of southwestern Alaska since I established them in 1836, and those on Bering Sea not at all. This has been greatly regretted both by myself and the teachers.

Also for want of transportation I have been unable to visit the schools at Howkan and Klawack, on Prince of Wales Island.

The schools at Sitka, Juneau, Wrangell, Douglass, Haines, and Killisnoo have been visited several times, and that of Metlakatla twice.

RECOMMENDATIONS.

I have the honor to submit the following recommendations:

1. An inspection of the schools of western Alaska by the general agent.-In view of the fact that I have been unable to reach those schools for three years, and as the time has come for establishing new schools in that region, some of which have already been recommended by the Territorial board of education, and as it is probable that a Government vessel will be sent next summer to that section to convey Government officials, therefore it is recommended that the U. S. Commissioner of Education be respectfully requested to arrange for the transportation of the general agent.

2. Change in supervision.-In order that the general agent may for the next two or three years give the larger part of his time to developing the school work in Western Alaska, I would recommend the following change in section 4, division 2, of the rules and regulations for the conduct of education in Alaska, to wit: First, that the general agent be relieved for the coming year from the local superintendency of the Sitka district, and be given the local superintendency of the Kodiak and Unalaska districts. Second, that a district superintendent be appointed for the Sitka district.

3. Permanent school fund.-I would again renew my recommendations of 1886-87 and 1887-88, which recommendations were also indorsed by the Territorial board of educa

tion, that the U. S. Commissioner of Education be respectfully requested to procure legislation from Congress permanently appropriating a sum of money for the education of the children of Alaska without distinction of race.

The present method of supporting the schools of Alaska by an annual appropriation from Congress is very unsatisfactory. As Congress one year voted $25,000 and the second nothing and the third $15,000, it can readily be seen that neither the school board nor the teachers can arrange for the schools until after Congressional action has been taken, nor until such action is had can they be sure that there will be any schools. And not only that, but some years the action of Congress is not known in Alaska until three months after the fiscal school year commences. A failure on the part of Congress any one year to make the necessary appropriation would close the schools, scatter Government property, and throw the teachers out of employment thousands of miles away from home and friends.

The disadvantages of the present system need but to be stated to be seen.

In the Western States and Territories the general land laws of the country provide that sections 16 and 36 in each township be set apart for the use of the schools in said States and Territories. In some of the States this has been a munificent endowment.

But Alaska has no townships and no surveyed lands and no law by which they can be surveyed. And when in course of time the general land laws are extended over it, the nature of the country and the peculiar climate and the requirements of the population will prevent to any great extent the laying out of the land in sections of a mile square. Thus while no school fund is practicable for years to come from the lands, the General Government derives a regular revenue from the seal islands and other sources, a portion of which could be used in the place of the proceeds of the sale of school lands. 4. An obligatory attendance law. --The operation of the obligatory attendance law which was enacted by the Territorial board of education and approved by the honorable the Secretary of the Interior in 1887, has been recently suspended by order of the United States Commissioner of Education.

In view of the importance of some suitable law for securing the more regular attendance at school of the children of Alaska, the Territorial board of education at its semiannual meeting June 14-19 took the following action:

"Whereas it is the invariable experience of all who have been engaged or interested for years in the difficult task of attempting to educate and civilize the natives and creoles of Alaska that the greatest obstacles to success are, first, the want of adequate means of securing the regular and general attendance of the children of these people at the various Government schools and, second, the stolid indifference, superstition, and fear of change on the part of the greater number of the parents of such children; and

"Whereas experience has also demonstrated that wherever native policemen have been employed and paid heretofore a moderate compensation for gathering these children into the school rooms and thus compelling attendance, not only is the average attendance itself largely increased, but au interest in the progress of the pupils and the success of the schools themselves has been gradually and permanently created in those native and creole parents; and

"Whereas, the Government of the United States is annually appropriating large sums of money for the purpose of educating and civilizing these people and employing competent and zealous teachers for that purpose, who are making great sacrifices by enduring severe privations, general discomfort, and personal isolation among an alien and barbarous race of people: Therefore,

Be it resolved by the Territorial board of education, That the Hon. Lyman E. Knapp, the governor of the District of Alaska, is hereby requested and urged to embody in his forthcoming annual report to the Department of the Interior the suggestions we have made herein, with the recommendation that Congress take the subject of compulsory education of the natives and creoles of Alaska into consideration, and, in addition to making the usual appropriations for the schools of the District, add thereto such enactments as will compel the regular attendance of the pupils at such schools as are already. established or may be hereafter provided."

I renew my recommendations of former reports on this subject.

5. School police.-With the granting of an obligatory attendance law, and even without it, the appointment of a native policeman in the native villages where schools exist, whose duty shall be to see that the children are in school, will greatly increase the present attendance.

I therefore recommend that an allowance of ten or fifteen dollars per month be allowed from the school fund for the employment of such men.

6. I recommend that the honorable the Secretary of the Interior be respectfully requested to ask Congress for an appropriation of $75,000 for education in Alaska for the year ending June 30, 1891.

7. In 1887-88 the Territorial board of education recommended to the United States